Cool new string possibility...

I'm excited about the prospect of Aquila's new strings that they are making for the classroom! The Aquila Kids Educational strings are multi-colored, which on the surface would normally be a turn-off for me, until I thought about it again. I can't tell you how often I have to go through a routine of explaining to students exactly WHICH string is the first string, second string, etc. even though we test on it, have several ways of remembering (they're like the floors of the building...first floor, second floor, etc. "A" is the first letter of the alphabet, and the first string...).  However, it just doesn't stick with most of them, which is also understandable.  I love the idea of being able to just say "Red String" or "Blue String" etc. 

HOWEVER - they have NOT been easy to get information on how to order them! After contacting Cordoba (Aquila's US distributor), and they were no help, I posted a question on UkuleleUnderground.com, and got an immediate response from the owner of the company.  Will keep you posted here on what develops! I'm eager to try them out, as my fishing line experiment has had mixed results, and I see some real pedagogical benefit to the colored strings, especially with my students with processing issues.

Did you know that Sibelius allows you to color individual notes?  My plan is to color the notes for some of the exercises according to the string they are located on.  I can imagine that this will help my more advanced kids, too, as we introduce the concept of the same pitch being located on multiple strings, and which string they should play that note on.

My mind spins...